India-Ethiopia Cooperation

Ethiopia is an ancient land of varied and rich history. It is a country where more than 80 ethnic groups of people having different cultures, traditions, and religions live together for centuries in peace and harmony. In terms of religion, the majority about 62 per cent is Christian, mainly oriental Orthodox; about 34 per cent is Muslims. Moreover, Ethiopia, as one of the few ancient civilization centers in the world, has its own established culture, value system and moral order. The country has contributed its share towards the assertion of the identity of the black race by repeatedly defeating those who came to colonise it.

As both Ethiopia and India are old countries, with 3000 and 5000 years of history respectively, their relations go back thousands of years. During the times of the Aksumite Kingdom (early Christian era), Indian traders used to bring to Abyssinia (the former name of Ethiopia) spices and silk and take back gold and ivory. Historians like Richard Pankhurst also wrote that Abyssinians had come to India in medieval and post medieval times as slaves. In the same manner, during the Portuguese exploit of the 17th century, Indians came to Ethiopia from Goa, followed by the merchants, workers and artisans who made their mark by opening shops and their architects influenced the Ethiopian landscape.

When Ethiopia embarked on an effort of expanding its modern education in the early sixties, it was the Indian teacher who came to Ethiopia to teach in elementary and secondary school even in the remotest part of the country. Thus India has put its mark on the lives of Ethiopians and gained affection, trust and respect. The present warm and all the more strong relationships between Ethiopia and India emanate from the spirit of mutual cooperation and assistance that is reflected in the two countries’ foreign policies.

The basic thrust of the Ethiopian foreign policy is rooted in the country’s desire to fight against poverty, promote speedy economic development and build democracy. Therefore its relationships with various nations, including India, is based on advancing these lofty ideas. India’s foreign policy in fact among other things is the reflection of India’s long years of civilization, its long years of experience and practice with democracy as well as a strong belongingness with the developing world. Thus, India as an emerging power can play a positive and constructive role in shaping the global economic order along with developing nations like Ethiopia.

As noted above there have been long standing historical relations between Ethiopia and India, which have evolved into friendly and cordial relations after the independence of India. As a result, Ethiopia has managed to make some use of the wide opportunities that India offers in capacity building, transfer of technology, investment and lines of credit.

Economic ties between India and Ethiopia have grown over the years. While Ethiopian export to India recorded a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) above 20 percent, imports from India were recorded to be an average 36.3 percent from 2004-11. India is the third most important source of imports for Ethiopia, contributing 7.5 per cent of all Ethiopian imports. Ethiopia receives an entire range of manufactured goods from India and India’s imports from Ethiopia mainly consist of vegetables, pearls, precious stones, oil seed, fruits, leather, cotton, coffee, tea, spices, ores and minerals.

As regards investment, India is the second largest foreign investor in Ethiopia with approved investments of about $5 billion. Indian companies have been playing a prominent role in the area of investment. Currently, around 596 Indian companies have investment licenses. The areas of investment include: agriculture including floriculture, textile, leather and leather products, engineering, plastic, pharmaceuticals and mining. The Government of India has encouraged Indian investment and export in Ethiopia by providing finance through its Export-Import Bank (EXIM Bank). The EXIM Bank’s branch office for Eastern Africa is in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia is the beneficiary of Indian government’s scholarship scheme under the ICCR programme where a large number of Ethiopians perused their Masters and doctoral degrees. In addition through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC), many Ethiopians have studied in a variety of fields like journalism, effective parliamentarism, designing etc. The Ethiopian government also sends professionals to India where many PhD and Master Students are studying in IITs, IIMs and other universities throughout the country. In addition to training Ethiopians utilizing Indian Government scholarships, Ethiopia has chosen India as place to send its students for training. The Pilot project of the pan-African e-Network was successfully implemented in Ethiopia. Now both India and Ethiopia are directly linked with e-education network which benefit large number of students. Also tele-medicine connect which links an Indian hospital for specialist consultation with Ethiopian hospitals have opened various areas of cooperation.

India has provided the first EXIM Bank line of credit in 2006 an amount worth of US$ 65 million for a power transmission and distribution project under the rural electrification programme of Ethiopia. Through the programme, the country has been able to lay down 227.50 km of 132 KV power transmission line. The program is estimated to benefit around 100,000 households. In the second India-Africa Forum Summit of 2011 held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, India committed a line of credit for rail road to be constructed between Djibouti and Ethiopia.

Coming out of its dark period of famine and civil war, Ethiopia is surging with economic growth that has registered 10 per cent for the last 11 years. As was stated in in a recent World Economic Forum report, Ethiopia will sustain its double digit growth until 2017, thus becoming the fastest growing economy in the world.1 This achievement would not have been possible without the support of partner countries like India.

• 1. Elena Holodny, “The 13 fastest-growing economies in the world”, (Accessed July 10, 2015).